Thursday, October 31, 2013

Dom Barrett #1 Berth for PBA Chameleon Championships

England’s Dom Barrett advanced from sixth place to first Monday night, claiming the No. 1 berth in the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)’s Chameleon Championship stepladder finals at South Point Bowling Center, in Las Vegas, NV, the third of five events that compose the PBA World Series of Bowling V.

Barrett, who won his only PBA Tour title in the 2011 Scorpion Championship, will lead a field of four into the Chameleon Championship finals on Saturday, Nov. 2. ESPN will air the finals on Sunday, Dec. 15, at 1 p.m. ET. Also winning berths in the championship round were Brian Kretzer of Dayton, Ohio; Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, NY, and 2010 PBA World Champion Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, MI.

Barrett rolled the only 300 game in the semifinal round Monday night, finishing with a 14-game total of 3,246 pins to win the top seed in the stepladder finals by 13 pins over Kretzer, who also is a one-time PBA Tour title winner. Ciminelli, who earned the top berth in the Viper Championship presented by PBA Bowling Challenge Sunday night, is the first player in World Series V to qualify for two telecasts. Smallwood won the fourth spot by four pins over Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel, FL, who earlier in the round called a foul on himself, costing him a place in the stepladder finals.

“It was a great run, perfect, couldn’t have worked out better,” Barrett said. “I won my title on the old Scorpion pattern, which is very similar to the new Chameleon lane condition, and it really matched up well to my game. I used the knowledge I’ve gotten from bowling in this center before and it helped me a lot.

“I’m over the moon,” he said with a grin. “I’ve bowled the best this week that I’ve ever bowled in my life, and this is the World Series, the biggest event there is. I had a couple of down moments in (the Viper Championship semifinal round) last night, but I went to bed, thought about it and woke up with a new attitude.”

Barrett went into the Viper semifinal round Sunday night as the tournament leader, but fell to 13th place by the end of the round.

Earlier Monday, the field of 235 players completed the third of four qualifying rounds for the PBA World Championship. The combined seven-game qualifying scores from the four animal pattern tournaments – Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon and Tuesday’s Scorpion Championship – will determine the top 24 players who will advance to World Championship round-robin match play on Wednesday and Thursday. After the Chameleon round, Barrett led World Championship qualifying with 5,046 pins, followed by Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, with a 4,905 total and Jason Belmonte of Australia in third place with 4,836 pins.

All qualifying rounds from the World Series are being covered live on PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel, and via “live scoring” on pba.com. Tuesday’s schedule includes Scorpion Championship qualifying squads at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. PT, and the top 24 semifinal round starting at 7:30 p.m.